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McCain, Palin on the attack
06/10/2008 14:58 - (SA)
Washington - Democrat Barack Obama accused Republican opponent John McCain of launching a smear campaign to reverse his slide in the polls and cover up his "erratic" behaviour in the face of America's financial crisis.
With four weeks left until Election Day, the 2008 US presidential campaign took a particularly nasty turn on Sunday as charges flew between the campaigns. The fierce skirmishing broke out after McCain's running mate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin claimed in three separate appearances on Saturday that Obama sees America as so imperfect "that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country".
The incendiary remarks referred to Obama's association with 1960s radical Bill Ayers, a founder of the Weather Underground whose members were blamed for several bombings when Obama was a child. Obama has denounced Ayers' radical views and activities, and there is no evidence they "pal around".
As if expecting the attack, Obama's campaign quickly fired back with a television ad that charged McCain, a 72-year-old four-term senator from Arizona, was "Erratic in a crisis. Out of touch on the economy."
The commercial, which starts playing nationally on cable television on Monday, played upon McCain's stumbling response to America's brewing financial difficulties and shifting positions as Congress and the White House hammered out a $700bn rescue plan.
Obama also delved into McCain's own political past by releasing a web video late on Sunday about the Arizona Republican's connections to Charles Keating, a convicted savings and loan owner whose actions two decades ago triggered a Senate ethics investigation that involved McCain as one of the "Keating Five".
The short video, being e-mailed to millions of Obama supporters, summarises a 13-minute web "documentary" that the campaign plans to distribute on Monday, spokesperson Tommy Vietor said. He said McCain's involvement with Keating "is a window into McCain's economic past, present and future".
Staying on the attack
Several Obama surrogates earlier on Sunday had hinted at this latest move to reopen the issue of McCain's ties to Keating. Rep Rahm Emanuel, a Chicago Democrat and Obama supporter, warned against McCain's strategy of attacking the Illinois senator's character.
"If we are going to go down this road, you know, Barack Obama was eight years old, somehow responsible for Bill Ayers," he said. "At 58, John McCain was associating with Charles Keating."
Just months into his Senate career, in the late 1980s, McCain made what he has called "the worst mistake of my life". He participated in two meetings with banking regulators on behalf of Keating, a friend, campaign contributor and savings and loan financier who was later convicted of securities fraud.
The Senate ethics committee investigated five senators' relationships with Keating. It cited McCain for a lesser role than the others, but faulted his "poor judgment".
Palin, however, stayed on the attack on Sunday, defending her claim that Obama "pals around with terrorists".
"The comments are about an association that has been known but hasn't been talked about," Palin said as she boarded her plane in Long Beach, California. "I think it's fair to talk about where Barack Obama kicked off his political career, in the guy's living room."
Palin's claim that Obama's association with Ayers "hasn't been talked about" is not true. Obama was questioned about Ayers during a prime-time Democratic debate against Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton before April's Pennsylvania primary. McCain also raised the Ayers issue during a television news interview that month. Obama's association with Ayers was regularly brought up by commentators on some cable television news shows, by right-wing radio talk show hosts and on political websites.
Harsher tactics
McCain adviser Greg Strimple predicted "a very aggressive last 30 days" of the campaign in a recent conference call with reporters.
"We are looking forward to turning a page on this financial crisis and getting back to discussing Mr Obama's aggressively liberal record and how he will be too risky for Americans," he said.
Obama, too, alluded to harsher tactics in a speech on Sunday to thousands of people in Asheville, North Carolina, a Republican-leaning state where polls show him within striking distance of McCain.
McCain and his aides, Obama said, "are gambling that he can distract you with smears rather than talk to you about substance. They'd rather try to tear our campaign down than lift this country up. It's what you do when you're out of touch, out of ideas, and running out of time."
Noting the nation's serious economic problems, Obama said: "Instead of addressing these crises, Senator McCain's campaign has announced that they plan to turn the page on the discussion about our economy and spend the final weeks of this campaign launching Swiftboat-style attacks on me." He was referring to unsubstantiated allegations about 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry's decorated military record in Vietnam, who was defeated by incumbent President George W Bush.
McCain has tried desperately through the campaign to separate himself from Bush, a fellow Republican whose approval rating is near historic lows as American voters blame him for the crumbling economy and hold him responsible for the unpopular Iraq war.
With American voters concerned about economic security above all other issues, Obama is trying to protect his growing margin over McCain and keep the focus on the potential financial meltdown that has sent shudders through the electorate over the past two weeks.
A new poll published on Sunday, meanwhile, showed Obama was leading McCain by 49% to 42% among likely voters in battleground Ohio. The Columbus Dispatch newspaper poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.
McCain was not campaigning on Sunday, taking the day off to prepare for Tuesday's second of three presidential debates at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. Obama's vice presidential candidate Joe Biden was not campaigning either. His mother-in-law died on Sunday. Palin held a fund-raising event in California.
- AP
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US Elections Special Report
